2009-11-30

More about the antenna situation. A few weeks back, prior to the CW weekend of the ARRL November Sweepstakes, spouse and I installed the Spi-Ro D-52 trap dipole. That's the one that's advertised as covering all 5 bands, 80-10 (it doesn't: it covers 80 and 40). But I must say, it does a pretty good job on the bands it does cover.

MHz SWR 3.500 11:1 3.860 1.1:1 4.000 4.6:1

7.000 5.9:1 7.210 1.7:1 7.300 2.2:1

50.22 2.2:1145.95 2.0:1

OK, so it covers 6 and 2 with a tuner? Weird. The readings on 20, 10, and, strangely, 15 aren't worth mentioning ... sort of like 3.500. That 11:1 reading could be a problem with the upcoming RTTY Roundup since the digital sub-band is now squished down below 3.600 MHz.

I didn't spend much time on 80 during the Phone weekend of SS and it showed in the results - about 100 QSOs fewer than last year. Worked a bunch on 40, though, and during the CW weekend, I made all 50 or so QSOs on 40. RFI doesn't seem too bad either.

The 4th port will have the 6-m loop eventually, but I just didn't feel like lowering the wobblestack to re-arrange the feedlines.

I was able to remove a 68-ft chunk of LMR-400 from service, though, which is cool. I'll be able to remove another chunk of RG-8 when I straighten out the 6-m stuff.

So far, the switch works great. I have the D-56 on port 1 of the 746 and the switch on port 2. I have 15 and 20 set (in the radio) for port 1 and everything else on 2. When I'm on the WARC bands, 10, 40, or 80, I just need to turn the knob on the controller and everything is groovy.